Vanderbilt stops South Carolina, gets first conference win

Kyle Fuller had a team-high 12 points as the Commodores, the Southeastern Conference’s lowest scoring team, got their first conference victory of the season, 58-51 at South Carolina on Saturday.

Vanderbilt (7-9, 1-3), one of four winless teams through the first three SEC games, went ahead to stay with a 10-point first-half run and held a surging South Carolina (11-6, 1-3) to two points in the final 2:56.

The Commodores’ point total actually was less than their season average coming into the contest (59.1). Still, they led by as many as 10 in the second half and turned back a Gamecocks’ rally that cut the margin to two twice, the second when Bruce Ellington’s basket made it 51-49.

As a team South Carolina made just 14 of 59 field goal attempts (23.7 percent) and four of 21 3-pointers (19.0 percent). The Gamecocks missed 11 straight shots during one first-half stretch. Brenton Williams made three of his team’s 3-pointers and led all scorers with 16 points.

Vanderbilt managed to get enough offense despite the fact that leading scorer Kedren Johnson missed all six of his shots and finished with just three points. The sophomore point guard did chip in eight rebounds, four assists and a blocked shot — all team-highs.

In addition to Fuller, who came off the bench for the second straight game, Dai-Jon Parker chipped in 11 points and three others contributed eight.

The Commodores made half of their free throws (five of 10) in the final minute and 20 of 33 for the game (60.6 percent), which was just enough to hang on to the lead. Notably, though, for one of the nation’s worst free throw soothing teams, Johnson made two after South Carolina cut it to two for the first time, 48-46, and Rod Odom made two after Ellington’s basket again got the Gamecocks within two.

13 Comments on this post:

By:Rasputin72 on 1/19/13 at 4:29

This is shocking!

By:TNindependent on 1/19/13 at 5:33

in my opinion the biggest moment in this game was when Stallings did not go into his typical rage over the goal-tending no-call and give USC two free throws... his temper cost Vandy the Ole Miss game, not the missed free throws

By:joe41 on 1/19/13 at 8:23

Free throw shooting was much better today. Still not good enough but good enough to beat South Carolina.
Joe

4gold, REAL fans back their team, win or lose. Between your hate for the Preds and Vandy's basketball team, you might want to take up knitting.

By:Rasputin72 on 1/20/13 at 4:36

Titan1............Your opinions do not necesarily translate into a mandate.

By:TITAN1 on 1/20/13 at 8:22

That was a fact, Rasprump, not an opinion.

By:wiseguy1 on 1/21/13 at 8:37

A W is a W. A road win is much sweeter. These guys may not be so bad afterall. Certainly need to grow up a little, ok allot. Road win is a positive. TNind says Stallings temper (go figure) gave game to Ole Miss ... these kids played UK close in second half. 2-2 would put them in the middle of the pack as there are only 3 teams better than 2-2.

Separation in the pack will become obvious shortly. Next 2 weeks will be a solid test. Auburn (2-2) & Alabama (3-1) at home, Mizzou (2-2) and UT (1-3) away.

By:dwight14 on 1/21/13 at 9:00

as i stated here earlier after a loss when most were saying we flat out stink,i still believe we will be ok...we will have very rough and painful growing pains...heck im not even thinking any type post season play nit or other..wont be the first time we stay at home either,but we're not the worse team out there either..just stop and think..we are one of the youngest teams in college ball...heck if we could shoot free throws,we might have 3 more wins...ole miss and kentucky to name 2...teams know this and we are gonna draw fouls because of it...im saying 14 wins maybe 15..that will be sad but still not bad for a group of kids in the sec..even tho the conference is down this yr,its still hard to win games in conference...with each passing game,we improve just a tad..that shows that we are growing..by the end of the season,we will have positive feelings about em...let em gel some more which im sure they will..they have to know each others habits under real game conditions not what they do in practice..like stallings said about the free throws..they make em in practice..but thats not game conditions..so if you are a true fan of vandy,just ride the ship and stick it out..i have for 45 yrs...stallings is a great coach..he will get the most out od them which wont be all that much this yr..next yr we will be a whole lot better..the raw talent is there..

By:TITAN1 on 1/21/13 at 9:05

Good post, dwight14.

By:shakafan on 1/21/13 at 11:02

The win was sweet and well deserved, but it is a long year. Can Stallings keep from draining the heart of his players before the year ends?